--your brand, Peter!' He thrust his face into Stony's
again, and all the hate that a face can carry and that a voice can convey
was betrayed in his expression and his words. 'Do you know what I have
endured, Peter? Do you know what I have suffered?'

Clutching at Stony's throat again, he bored his knee into the body under
him, his arms became rigid with the power of his grip, and Stony lay
choking, clawing feebly at the other's sleeves, his face distorted into a
hideous caricature.

The other men stood about, watching, the Australians reluctant to
interfere in a quarrel they did not understand. It was Done who seized
the stranger, tearing him off his victim, and then Mike and a teamster
laid hands upon him, while Stony was writhing and panting on the ground.
The digger offered no resistance; he seemed unconscious of everything but
his hatred and his vengeance, and his eyes never moved from Stony.

'We draw the line at cold-blooded murder, mate!' said Mike, but the other
gave no answer.

Stony had picked himself up, and, casting one horrified look at his
enemy, turned away, and plunged into the blackness of the Bush, running
like a frightened animal.

'What's he been up to, anyhow?' asked one of the teamsters, as they
released the stranger. The latter did not reply, but instantly darted
after the runaway. The four men listened to the retreating footsteps, and
presently the Bush echoed two pistol shots fired in rapid succession. The
birds murmured and moved in the trees, a monkey-bear grunted disgustedly,
and then all was still again.

VIII

FOR some little time the four men stood with their faces turned in the
direction Stony and his pursuer had taken, listening breathlessly, and
then they went to their blankets again. Done was greatly disturbed; the
others took it more as a matter of course.

'You won't follow them?' said Jim.

'Well,' one of the brothers replied, 'I ain't particularly busy just now,
but my hands are too full for that kind of foolishness.'

'He meant murder!'

'Somethin' too like it to please old Stony.'

'What do you think it was all about?'

'Can't say. Long grudge, evidently.'

'The clean-shaven man was a lag,' said Mike. 'Convict,' he added, seeing
a question in Jim's eye. 'Maybe your friend lagged him.'

'Don't know him from a crow,' replied the teamster addressed. 'We're
taking some traps and ware up to the Creek for him on our load, and he
travelled along.'

'I think you're m